


Foresight (AKA This Could Be A Problem)

by rubychan05



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Temporal Paradox
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-19
Updated: 2006-07-19
Packaged: 2018-03-08 00:15:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3188588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubychan05/pseuds/rubychan05
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even meeting your future self can't change time. You'll still lose the things that are most precious to you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Foresight (AKA This Could Be A Problem)

“Ah. Now this could be a problem.”

 Standing behind the Doctor, Rose resisted the urge to roll her eyes. After travelling with the Doctor for God knows how long, she should have expected this. She’d learnt almost as soon as she started travelling with him that the great Time Lord wasn’t as held together as he liked to appear.

 After all, on only her second journey with him the Doctor had managed to screw up the flight plan, hadn’t he? December 24th 1860, Naples, had become December 24th 1869, Cardiff. Cardiff, of all places. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that the Doctor had managed to mess up again.

 Although, maybe this time it was just a little more serious…

 “Right…I’d ask what you were doing here, but as you’re me I’m guessing you made a right mess of the flight plan, right Doctor?” The other Doctor grinned, pushing his hands into his pockets and smiling amicably at them.

 Her Doctor beamed back, nodding.

“I’d say so, yes. Looks like Barcelona 5006 turned into India 5016.” Gazing up at the sky, her Doctor sighed. “Are we ever going to get to that place?”

 “We?” The Doctor…the other Doctor…questioned. There was a glint in his eyes that Rose couldn’t quite identify, something that made her feel vaguely uneasy as the Doc…oh this was getting ridiculous… _her_ Doctor stepped aside to reveal her. The other Doctor made a vague choking sound, brown eyes widening. The next thing she knew, she was being held so tightly she could barely breathe, the other Doctor’s arms wrapped around her.

 “Ok…I guess I’m happy to see you too…” Rose said uneasily, shooting a confused glance at her Doctor. He shrugged, looking just as bewildered as she was. As if sensing their uncertainty the other Doctor let go and straightened up, coughing slightly into his fist.

 “Yeah…right. Sorry about that. You know me, I’ll hug anything. Just haven’t seen you in a long time, that’s all.” Rose blinked. Hadn’t seen her? For a long time? But she wouldn’t ever do that to him, it didn’t make any…her eyes widened, and she stepped back, a hand over her mouth.

 “Oh God…I left you, didn’t I?” She breathed, unable to believe it. “I went back home with my mother.” The other Doctor shrugged, smiling weakly at her.

“You could say that.”

“But why would I do that? I love travelling with you, I’d never…”

 Her voice trailed away, and her Doctor moved behind her to place a pair of reassuring hands on her shoulders.

“Rose, we’re already in a paradox because of me meeting myself. Let’s not make it any worse, alright?” He said quietly. Rose nodded wildly, her eyes not leaving the other Doctor. He just seemed so lonely…how could she have done that to him?

 “It’s ok, Rose. We all knew that that day would come. No one can keep travelling with a Time Lord forever. Not without losing who they are.” The other Doctor reassured her. Rose brightened, twisting her head around to look up at her Doctor.

“Shall I go put the tea on then Doctor? I mean, my Doctor. I mean…I mean…” She flushed, unable to believe what she’d just said.

 Her Doctor laughed at her embarrassment.

“How about this then. Me, Doctor 1. Him, Doctor 2. That help?” He asked, pointing to his duplicate. The other Doctor shrugged, chuckling slightly.

“Fine by me. Any reason why you’re number one though?” Doctor 1 grinned, showing a smile full of pearly white teeth.

“Because we both know that I’m the best.”

* * *

“So this won’t make those Reaper things come again? Because I remember when I saved my dad, and things didn’t get so good afterwards.” Rose said uncertainly, handing Doctor 2 a cup of tea. He shrugged, exchanging glances with Doctor 1.

 “Well, we haven’t actually changed time yet really. We’ve seen each other, which is never good, but no one’s actually screwed up the timeline this time.”

“Right. But what I mean is…is it really ok for us all to be talking like this?”

 “It’s fine, Rose.” Her Doctor insisted, taking a sip of his tea and making a face at the unusually strong taste. “As long as I don’t do something stupid to change the timeline after we part company then it’s all ok. And I’m not you, so that’s not going to happen.”

“Oi! Watch it, you.”

 “So where are you two right now? Where did you last travel?” Doctor 2 asked, gazing intently at his counterpart. Doctor 1 shrugged.

“Here, there, everywhere. Although we did pop into a base on a planet orbiting a black hole a little while ago.”

“Oh…” The other Doctor bit his lip, staring down at the floor. A sudden air of desolation seemed to surround him, and Doctor 1 narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

 “So, why don’t you show us around the place? Actually haven’t been to India before…not the planet, anyway. Maybe you could show us a few interesting places?” He suggested. Rose snorted.

“Right, because two men who look exactly the same aren’t going to cause questions.”

 Doctor 1 rolled his eyes, sighing in exasperation.

“I’ll just change my clothes. We can say we’re twins. Honestly, are all humans this stupid or is it just you?” Rose stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed, sticking his own out at her.

 Leaning against the TARDIS console a few metres away, the other Doctor smiled wistfully.

* * *

“Oh wow! Look at all this stuff! It’s all so gorgeous!” Rose exclaimed, gaping at the hundreds of stalls surrounding her. Everywhere she looked a native was arranging their wares, calling out to the customers, haggling with a buyer over the price of some beautiful object. Glancing to the left she let out a small squeak of joy as she saw a stall full of what looked to be saris.

 Turning pleading eyes on her Doctor, she grinned when he sighed and pointed half heartedly at the stall in question.

“Go on then. Go satisfy that addiction of yours.”

“It’s not an addiction!”

“Then how come every time we come back from some kind of shop the TARDIS has to increase your wardrobe a few inches?”

“…”

“Thank you.”

 Watching Rose run off, the Doctor turned to his counterpart, an unusually serious look on his face.

“Now why don’t you tell me what really happened? Rose is right, she’d never willingly leave me…you…whatever. She just wouldn’t.”

 Doctor 2 chuckled bitterly, walking a few steps away before pausing and looking back at Doctor 1.

“You know I can’t tell you what happened. It could change the timeline, make a wound in the timestream…”

“I know! I know, alright. But I need to know why she leaves…is it me? Do I do something stupid and drive her away?” He asked urgently.

 His future self sighed, craning his head back to look at the soft white clouds rolling in over the horizon.

“No. You don’t do anything like that.” He admitted, giving in. “But it’s still your fault that she’s gone.”

 The Doctor stared at him, a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew full well that he was treading a thin line here, but he couldn’t help himself. He had to know what happened. He had to find out why Rose would leave him.

 “She dies, doesn’t she?” He whispered, eyes searching for and locating the bob of blonde hair flitting excitedly round the marketplace, pestering one stall owner after another. “I get her killed.”

 “In a sense, yes. But not in the way you’re thinking. I can’t tell you any more than that. You’re me…you know how dangerous something like this is. By all rights one of us should have got in his TARDIS and disappeared already.”

 “But we haven’t.”

“Nope.”

“Because we’ll never learn will we?”

“Nope.”

“Thought not.”

* * *

“You should have seen it, Doctors!” Rose babbled enthusiastically, holding up several saris that she’d managed to somehow get for the price of one. “They had them in every single colour you could think of! It was incredible!”

 Doctor 1 smiled, raking his gaze over the swathes of fabric.

“So in a marketplace that sold everything from rare spices that can only be found on this planet to the bones of the late royal family, you bought stuff you can buy back in Earth’s plain old boring India?” He questioned. Rose beamed, either missing or choosing to ignore the sarcasm.

“Yup!”

 He laughed, staring fondly at his companion. Rose Tyler was one in a million, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

 “Well, I’m going to bed. All that shopping wore me out, and I wouldn’t want to miss tomorrow’s sales!”

“You’re going back again? I thought we could try for Barcelona. Might actually get there this time.” Doctor 1 protested. Rose simply grinned, spinning round so that her saris blew out in a colourful windmill shape around her.

“Come on Doctor…you know me better than that.”

 Turning to face the other Doctor, her smile faltered for a moment.

“Will you still be here when I wake up?” She asked softly. Doctor 2 shook his head slowly, a self-deprecating expression on his face.

“Can’t. Sorry. Got places to see, people to visit…entire civilisations to save. And the longer I stay here, the more chance there is of a Reaper incident happening again.”

 “Oh.” Rose murmured, wondering what to do. Should she stay here a bit longer then? Was it better or worse for Doctor 2 to see her again after so long? As if sensing her dilemma the future version of her Time Lord smiled, raising an eyebrow at her.

“What are you waiting for? I thought you were going to bed! Or have you forgotten the way to your own room?” He joked.

 As Rose gave him a hug goodbye and ran off to her room on the TARDIS, Doctor 2 closed his eyes as if in pain.

“And that’s the last time I’ll ever see her again.” He sighed desolately. “Didn’t get the chance to tell her this time, either. Not that I could. Not without messing up the timeline, and annoying the hell out of you for making you realise something you’re still denying even now.”

 “I’m not even going to try asking you to translate that last bit of moping.” Doctor 1 announced. “But you’re not going anywhere until you tell me exactly what happens. I promise that I won’t try and change history – you know I’m not that stupid.”

 Doctor 2 hesitated, before throwing caution to the wind in typical Doctor-esque style and making the decision to trust himself.

“If you visited that black hole planet just before this, then you don’t have long left with her. A month, maybe a few days more, but not much.”

 The Doctor jerked slightly, both hearts contracting painfully. A month? Was that all? After all this time, and all their adventures, he only had a month left to say goodbye?

 “H…How?” He croaked, mind reeling. The other Doctor smiled sadly, wrapping his arms round his waist.

“Two alien races will invade Earth at the same time. You’ll beat them, but Rose won’t be able to hold on, and she’ll end up in some alternate universe. There’ll be no way to get her back.”

 “I…I…” The Doctor found himself at a loss for words, possibly for the first time in his life. Getting up, Doctor 2 placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and gripped slightly, offering his counterpart what little comfort he could.

 “Take the advice of an older, possibly wiser version of yourself. Take her to the places she wants to go. Help her make some of the best memories she’ll ever have with you.” He whispered before leaving.

 Three days later the Doctor took Rose to see the 2012 Olympics.

* * *

_“How long are you going to stay with me?”_

_“Forever!”_

* * *

Looking back on it later, the Doctor would always think that he’d been blind not to recognise the events at Torchwood Tower as what his future self had warned him of. Right from the start, the signs had been there, but he’d been too stupid to see them.

 But when Mickey and Jake, and even Pete, started to come through into their world, he had no choice but to face the fact that his time with Rose had ended. And sending her off with Jackie to live in that alternate reality was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, even harder than the choices he made during the infamous Time War.

 And when Rose came back on her own with a promise that she’d never leave him, he dared to hope that the timeline had changed even without him interfering, that Rose’s decision had somehow harmlessly prevented that future from ever coming about.

 Then she let go of the lever, and even as he hopelessly reached out for her, screaming her name, he knew that it was all over.

 “There’ll be no way to get her back.”

 Pressing himself against the wall, the Doctor didn’t let himself cry. Instead, he let a little piece of him die, let another little bit of his heart freeze over as he lost yet another person that he cared about. And walking away, he struggled to imagine the life he would have to lead alone now, how empty the corridors of the TARDIS would be without the constant chatter provided by his companion.

 “And I suppose, if it’s my last chance to say it…Rose Tyler, I…”

**Author's Note:**

> 16-year-old me had a lot to learn.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr under [rubychan05](http://rubychan05.tumblr.com/).


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